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July 28: Psalm 7:14-17
Key Verse: Psalm 7:16
The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads.
Devotion:
Whilst we can all tell of a time or times when someone evil has got good rewards, we can probably all tell of the time soon afterward when that person or people got into trouble for doing what they were doing! We may think of the world as being a place where the bad people get their just deserts at some stage or another, but the truth is the world does not level itself out but tends toward chaos instead.
It is God who is the great leveller. God is righteous and just. This means He will take account of the bad things which people do because they do these things to His children and He will allow them to face the consequences of their actions. He will also take notice of the good people do to His children and give us a reward which He deems appropriate for out actions.
When we harbour bad people or unjust ways, we must expect bad things to follow at some stage; not because God will head bad things on us, but because the bad we have been collecting will spill into our lives and into the lives of the people around us. If we try to bury those bad things by hiding them from others, we are only fooling ourselves because God knows exactly what we have been up to and He never forgets!
But, the most amazing thing is God’s love which covers all manner of things in our lives. Because we know God is righteous and just, we should sing of His praises and allow others to know of His righteousness and justice. The more we allow others to see the truth, the more likely they will be to do things which fall in line with that justice...
Points to Ponder:
Do you praise God for the just things He does?
Do you praise God for keeping justice in this world?
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July 27: Psalm 7:3-5
Key Verse: Psalm 7:5
then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.
Devotion:
What happens when things go against you and you don’t like what is happening to you? Typically we call out for help or we shut down – just two of the extremes we take when things go bad! But, when you know you have done wrong, are you willing to accept the consequences for what you have done wrong? I think the answer here is going to depend on what you think you have done wrong and also on what you think you are entitled to!
We do tend to have this puffed-up idea of what we are entitled to, and we expand on those entitlements when things start to go wrong – in other words, we expand on what we think we should be able to do without getting the blame... or, if we look at it another way, we blame others!
One of the easiest things to do is to blame someone when you see something going wrong in their life – why else would things go wrong unless they have done something wrong?!? Well, God doesn’t work like that. His love for us goes far and beyond what we have done wrong or what we are going to do wrong. He allowed Jesus to come to our aid before we did anything wrong – before we were even born!
But when we do things wrong, and we sin against God – what do we do about it. It takes a whole lot of courage to admit to your mistakes and a large dose of strength to accept you are at the centre of the problem! It takes a larger amount of strength to accept the consequences of our actions. God wants to be able to help us out whenever things go wrong – but He also wants us to be real and accept the fact we do get it wrong at times!
Points to Ponder:
Are you always right?
Who do you blame when you do something wrong?
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July 26: Matthew 20:20-28
Key Verse: Matthew 20:21
“What is it you want?” he asked. She said, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.”
Devotion:
How many times have you told God what you want? I’m not talking about the things we can ask for, for healing or for comfort... I’m talking about the times when we demand something because we think it is right! I know I have gone above and beyond normal prayers once in a while to tell God what I want, but the real peace comes from waiting on God and listening to what He wants from us in the long term.
We tend to think about the here and now far too often and not the long-term picture which God is looking at. Our span of attention or focus is on the short-term things we can comprehend and think about. I am no good at games such as chess because I cannot think through the logistics of many moves ahead – instead I focus on the short term moves and I most often end up losing because of this!
God always looks at the long-term picture and tries to show us the path we should be taking for the long-term life we have ahead of us. Yes, He is concerned with the short-term because this is where we live; but His focus is on the long-term goal of us making it to Heaven with Him! If we are able to stop and listen to Him more often, we are going to get a life which runs closer to the one He has lined up for us – the issue really is how hard we are willing to listen!
Sometimes we demand things which are not possible – but because God has such love for us, He tries to cater for our needs when it is possible (for Him and not for us I might add!) There is no limit to what God can do – but there are limits to what He is willing to do because of the billions of other people in this world! We can’t ask Him to exterminate a country just because we don’t like it! Those are potentially His children too – even if we do not get the chance to witness to them.
Points to Ponder:
Do you demand things from God?
Will you consider His will in your life today?
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July 25: Psalm 145:1-7
Key Verse: Psalm 145:4
One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.
Devotion:
The psalmist writes of just a few of the reasons to worship and praise God – the more we get to know God and the more we live with Him in our lives, the more we can join in with the praise and worship because we will see the reasons too! And it should not just be on the days where something goes right, but every day of our lives because every day is another day gifted to us by God!
I don’t think we will ever get to understand just how much God does – even when we get to Heaven and see all the glory which awaits us. His acts will continue to amaze us and to surprise us – even when we expect them! No matter how many times we say He answers our prayers, we still get excited (or at least I do) when we have a prayer answered... because we cannot comprehend why a God would care for us!
The verse I have focussed on here is the passing of the knowledge of and about God from one generation to another. Back in the early days of the Israelites, they would tell their stories over and over again to their children so they would know of the things God has done for them. Nowadays we tend to rely on things like the internet to pass on that knowledge – gone are the days of writing things down so it seems!
It is important we pass on our love of God to the people around us, whether they be our friends and families or others just willing to stop and talk. The more we praise and worship our God, the greater our zeal becomes, and the more others will be intrigued by this love we have for our God. The more people are intrigued, the more willing they will be to stop and listen – this is when we can pass on the love we have to others!
Points to Ponder:
Do others see your love for God through what you say?
Do others see your love for God through what you do?
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July 24: Psalm 27:13-14
Key Verse: Psalm 27:14
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Devotion:
No matter how much someone tells you, the way you will expand your faith is through answered prayers. This may sound like a chicken and egg situation where we have to have faith to pray and we pray so we can see our faith come to fruition! But, like most things in life, you have to have a starting point somewhere!
I can remember learning to swim as a small child. I started off in the paddling pool and slowly graduated to the big pool – but where I could stand. My friends had learned before me and they would run and jump into the deep end... it looked like they were having more fun than me jumping into the shallow end! So I had to take the final step and be brave enough to do my first jump into the deep end... The rest is history!
The same can be said about our prayer life... when we start off with our prayers, we probably don’t ask for too much and we don’t expect much of an answer. Our level of faith at this stage is quite shallow. When we see our prayers get answered, it is like realising we can swim – even though the water is shallow enough to stand up in. We pray for things we know we can probably do ourselves, or we can rely on someone else to do. But, as we see those prayers answered, we go a bit deeper until we start asking for things we know are not possible through our own doing.
This is when our faith grows – when we see God answering those difficult, improbable or impossible things! Our faith is exercised by us asking in the first place. The more we get used to asking God, the more we realise He answers and the greater our reliance on our faith is... until we get to that stage when we expect God to answer all our prayers. That is when others see great faith in us and are encouraged to do the same!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you pray?
How often do you expect God to answer?
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July 23: Psalm 27:1-3
Key Verse: Psalm 27:1
The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?
Devotion:
How much do you actually trust God? I know when things go wrong we all turn to God and beg Him for mercy or peace, but how much of that is out of desperation and how much is that out of faith and trust in Him? I admit I have faltered when things have not gone my way. I admit I have got things wrong and thought more of myself at times when I should have been thinking more of God... But I’m human...
We can see many places in our bibles where King David has trusted God when all else was failing. We can also see times when he trusted his own decisions instead of God’s will. I guess that makes him human too!
Here we have a reminder of how much David trusted God. You can deduct from this he was probably thinking back on what God had done for him when he called out for help. This is what we should be doing as well – looking back over our lives and seeing the times when God had a hand in things and they went according to a greater plan than our own plan!
I can look back at times in my life, many of those in the past three years, where God had made it possible for things to happen when everyone around was saying it was impossible. I can also remember pleading with God on those occasions to do things because nobody else could. I know from my own experience God answers prayers and His love for us all is shown time and time again.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you ask God for help?
How many of those times did you trust God to help?
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July 22: Psalm 43:1-4
Key Verse: Psalm 43:4
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
Devotion:
If you are still worried about how much doubt you have in your life, then go through this group of Psalms and find out how much doubt David had in his life! We think of King David as a stalwart of trust and faith who we can look up to and be encouraged by. Various places in our bible tell us of his faithfulness and his dedication... but we can still read about the doubts and worries he had all the time.
What we need to do when we do have doubts or worries is to lift our spirits up so we can re-focus on the good God does in our lives. This could mean stopping what you are doing and listening to a worship song, or maybe tuning out of the worldly worries and thinking on what God has done in your past. There are so many ways we can encourage ourselves, but far too often we brush them under a carpet instead of doing them!
My dad would quite often remind me to ‘help myself’ rather than waiting on God for everything because I would spend a lot of time waiting on God. This is not to say he was encouraging me to do it all myself, but rather to take the step forward and do something. God opens doors and shows us the ways forward, but if we do not step through those doors or follow the paths He shows us, we are going to stagnate and even begin to doubt...
When we open our eyes to everything God does, we will see the good and the bad! There is a whole lot of bad and evil things in this world we have to live in. God wants to direct us through the minefields laid out in front of us by the world. God wants us to be safe. He tells us how to be safe. He guides us daily... but if we don’t do anything about it, we will start to needlessly blame Him instead of ourselves for what we don’t do!
Points to Ponder:
How often are you guided by God?
How often do you act on that guidance?
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July 21: Psalm 42:9-10
Key Verse: Psalm 42:9
I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?’
Devotion:
Ok, admit it, how many times have you doubted whether God is with you? I know it’s something we don’t like to admit, but when we get into a bit of a rut or a tight corner, we tend to start thinking thoughts like this... it’s normal! Don’t fret about it! I used to get really upset with myself for having doubts which would cause all sorts of issues with health and my life in general!
God knows we are going to have doubts, He knows we will fail at things, He knows we are not up to certain things... This is why Jesus came to do all He did – so we would all have access to the promises of God no matter how far we have gone off track and no matter how many doubts we have in our lives!
I have written many times about how I pray all the time – well, that’s not 100% true because I do have times when I am lacking in my prayer life and when I feel like God has forgotten me. But I also can spend much more time talking about the great things God has done for me and all the love and support He gives me daily – even when I have been doubting!
You see, God is always with us. If we are looking the wrong direction up the road, we will not see the bus coming from the other direction! The same can be said in our spiritual lives. If we are looking in the wrong places we will probably not see what God is doing for us until after it has passed! We may feel like it is the end of what we can endure, but God knows exactly how far we can go and He will open the best path for us to get there... if we listen and obey.
Points to Ponder:
Are you worried about your doubts?
Have you noticed God answers prayers no matter what?
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July 20: Mark 6:53-56
Key Verse: Mark 6:55
They ran throughout that whole region and carried those who were ill on mats to wherever they heard he was.
Devotion:
Who do you run to when you need help? We finished off yesterday with this question to ponder; do you seek out a brother or sister, a parent or guardian, or even your best friend? Sometimes the people around us are not the people who we can fully trust in because they do not have all the answers we seek!
Wherever and whenever people saw Jesus, there was recognition and the word spread very quickly. People were desperate to bring the sick and inform to Him so they could get blessed and even healed. They knew they could just touch something from Christ and they would be healed – they had learned this through things Jesus did.
Whenever people brought forward their sick friends and relatives, Christ had mercy on them and would normally heal the people who needed it. Because of this people would always seek out Jesus and reach out to touch Him with absolute faith their infirmities would be removed just by His touch! They had faith in what God could do through Him – this is the faith we need to share with others by showing them they have a friend in Jesus who is willing and able to do so much with and for us!
Imagine the crowds if they had social media back in those days – I think the internet would be buzzing whenever people saw Christ. Can you imagine the crowds and the chaos as people flood in to hear Christ? Why should this not be happening just because Jesus is not physically here in human form? Christ can do many things and is not bound by the physical limitations we build up around ourselves. Look forward to what it will be like to be with Jesus!
Points to Ponder:
How do you show people Christ is with you?
Will you send out a few invitations to people to show them Christ is real?
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July 19: Mark 6:30-34
Key Verse: Mark 6:34
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.
Devotion:
I wonder how many times you have got so carried away with work or a hobby, you have forgotten to eat and drink properly! I know I have done this on many occasions with computer work and also in doing God’s work. When we get going, it is hard to stop and doing something which seems menial such as eating or drinking when you have so much more work to do!
God wants us to take time out at regular intervals so we do not wear ourselves out. He showed us to take one day of the week as a day of rest and recuperation – something many of us forget to do in our busy lifestyles. Jesus upheld this by reminding the disciples to take time out and to try and spend it with God.
But when Jesus tried to take the disciples away to a quiet place so they could rest, many people saw where they were going and followed them expecting to be blessed in some manner by Christ. Jesus found a way to getting peace by taking them out onto the water so others would not try to follow them – but they had to come back to dry land in the end. This is when the people crowded round them.
When Jesus saw them all, He had compassion on them. Not because they had wondered out into this place, or even because they came out without food and drink... He had compassion on them because He could see they had no real spiritual leader to turn to. They did not have a good shepherd at that time. He knew He would be able to step forward and take on this mantle, but He also knew what else He had to do before then...
Points to Ponder:
Do you always go out fully prepared to do God’s Work?
Who do you put your trust in when you need backup?